11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

For the Asia Pacific Triennial, the most recent development in the unfolding saga manifests in the series ‘Terraformation’ 2022–23, which envisions Merchant’s beings after leaving our planet, and follows their process of terraforming, or shaping new planets to be more habitable: After destroying our planet, we must now leave it and begin the work to build a new, more Utopic world elsewhere. Building on the idea of Terraformation, I look at what the next steps would be to sustain life for a nascent, neo-primitive society that is starting afresh. I explore what it might be like to create more complex structures and environments, looking both at the architecture we leave behind on our old planet as well as new forms inspired by nature. 3 Drawing on scientific, fictitious and mythological ideas, each work in the ‘Terraformation’ series acts as a proposition for sustaining new life in a new world. In The Pollinator, a being grasps the stems of a pollen-rich plant, alluding to engineered pollination as a means of vegetative propagation and engineered cosmogony. Regolith is based on the idea of ant colonies and their ability to self-organise and communicate through their own ecosystem. Vimana illustrates a wondrous flying chariot based on ideas in the ancient Hindu Vedas and Jain Agamas texts. Inspired by how humpback whales sustain themselves over long migrations, Silo depicts a character encased in a whale-like shape, in thinking about unconventional methods to store food and supplies over long periods. 4 Drawing on aspects of our collective pasts, Merchant envisions these dreamlike creatures and spaces through a revelatory form of environmental futurism. The fantasy softly veils the reality of our own threatened world, where the eventual need to seek survival elsewhere in the universe seems as impossible as living harmoniously together in our present. Envisaging a future far removed from our current reality might, however, help humanity navigate the present and harness our collective power of imagination to realise a future utopia. TARUN NAGESH Vimana 2023 / Gouache, watercolour and ink on paper / 140 x 100cm / Courtesy: The artist and TARQ, Mumbai NOTES 1 Rithika Merchant, artist statement supplied to the author, September 2023. 2 Merchant, artist statement. 3 Merchant, artist statement. 4 Merchant, artist statement. Rithika Merchant crafts ethereal worlds born from her consideration of how narratives, myths and ideas resonate across different peoples, cultures and religions, and how, as in speculative and science fiction, these shared stories inform our imaginings of the future. 1 Merchant has developed a distinctive visual language influenced by botanical painting — to emphasise the important role of nature — as well as the figurative and narrative approaches of folk art. Like maps or scrolls, the surfaces of her works take a unique form incorporating patterned folding, collage and papercutting techniques and a bright palette of watercolours. Merchant’s illustrations speculate on what might happen as the world becomes less habitable for humans, and what new worlds, creatures and relationships might then evolve. Curious beings inhabit and interact with the artist’s fantastical worlds. Merchant has carefully constructed the beings — including their evolution, values, beliefs and technologies — across different series, as she explains: In ‘Birth of a New World’ 2020 my ‘beings’, which are proxies of us, are coming to terms with what we have done to our planet and looking for answers in the sky, the water and the land. In ‘Return to Stardust’ 2021, I look to a more primordial time, where I search for answers in the stars. I focus on the sky, using a holistic vision of the universe to try and answer what comes after the Holocene and Anthropocene when the Earth started changing in a much more rapid and real way. In ‘Festival of the Phoenix Sun’ 2022 they/ we begin looking into our past to find solutions and wisdom. They begin to figure out ways to evolve by tapping into alternate realities. In this body of work my ‘beings’ prepare to leave their old ways and world behind in an effort to endure as a civilisation. 2 BORN 1986, MUMBAI, INDIA LIVES+WORKS INMUMBAI + BARCELONA, SPAIN RITHIKAMERCHANT ARTISTS+PROJECTS ASIAPACIFICTRIENNIAL 146 — 147